THE Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday described Israel's controversial security fence being built in the occupied West Bank as a "symbol of fear and despair".

Dr Rowan Williams, addressing an ecumenical service at St George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem, said the fence "stands as a terrible symbol of the fear and despair that threatens everyone in this city and country, all the communities who share this Holy Land".

He added, "This is not the place to rehearse arguments about the fence; it is enough to recognise that it is seen by so many as one community decisively turning its back on another, despairing of anything that looks like a shared resolution, a shared future, a truly shared peace."

It was not the only symbol of despair, of course, he added.

"The dismembered bodies of bombers and their victims are still deeper signs of the refusal of a future, the choosing of darkness and mutual alienation."

"But one read in the Bible not only about Christ breaking down the dividing wall of hostility, but about something new being built on the foundation of faithful witnesses, with Christ holding the structure together.

"The way is open to God the Father for all, for people of every race, even though their difference is not abolished."

St Paul had spoken of becoming citizens of a new society, he said.

"So much of the tragedy that surrounds us here has to do with citizenship. Europe's history created a world in which it seemed that only in Israel was it possible for Jews to feel themselves fully citizens, fully in possession of their dignity and security; nothing should compromise our shared commitment to this.

"But now we also face a situation in which they and all of us must ask about those others who feel unable to exercise their civic and human dignities.

"What is needed is not only the refusal of violence and the continuing work of local and international peacemakers but the steady effort to create citizenship . . . in the disadvantaged communities of this region."

Today Dr Williams will meet Israeli ministers, including Israeli President Moshe Katsav, while on Thursday he will visit Ramallah and make a courtesy call to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He will also journey to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. The Church of the Mount of the Beatitudes is his last stop before returning home on Friday.